Field observation or occurrence
Darwin Core describes what was observed, where, when and by whom; Humboldt adds survey effort and protocol.
Primary sources & specifications
Built on standards researchers already use.
The list below is Clio’s current foundation map. These links point to primary academic papers and normative or authoritative specifications; adoption and export integrations remain work in progress.
Choose a context
Start with the work, then find the vocabulary.
Specimen, material or collection
ABCD/EFG and Latimer Core help distinguish physical material and collection context from an observation alone.
Lab or microscopy image
REMBI, OME and OME-Zarr describe preparation, acquisition, image structure and reusable imaging context.
Environmental or sequence-linked sample
MIxS, plus event and sampling context, helps retain the conditions that make a sample interpretable.
Astronomy image or measurement
FITS, WCS and IVOA provenance keep capture time, sky position, equipment, calibration and processing lineage together.
Image privacy and preservation
EXIF, IPTC and XMP describe embedded metadata; RO-Crate, BagIt and PREMIS preserve context, fixity and processing evidence.
Before the vocabulary, the determination. These standards describe a record once you know what you are looking at. Getting there is a separate problem, and the reference library indexes the external atlases, terminology and taxonomic authorities that support it.
Field observations & occurrences
Darwin Core
The core vocabulary for occurrence records: what was seen, where, when, and by whom.
Ecological inventories
Humboldt Extension
Sampling effort, protocol, completeness, and inferable absences for traps, tows, transects, and plots.
Biological imaging
REMBI
Sample preparation, acquisition, instrument, and analysis metadata for reusable microscopy data.
Microscopy files
OME Data Model
Machine-readable image dimensions, channels, objectives, and physical pixel metadata, including OME-TIFF and OME-XML.
Cloud-native imaging
OME-NGFF / OME-Zarr
A next-generation format direction for large, multi-resolution biological image collections.
Images & media
Audiovisual Core
TDWG multimedia terms for linking a photograph, scan, or recording to a biodiversity occurrence.
Image properties & privacy
EXIF + IPTC Photo Metadata
Embedded capture, rights, descriptive and device metadata that should be inventoried before an image is shared—including location and identity-bearing fields.
Geology
ABCD + EFG
Geoscience terms for mineralogical, petrological, and palaeontological specimens where Darwin Core alone is not enough.
Water, sequences & eDNA
MIxS
Environmental context for sequence-linked samples: location, depth, environment, and sampling method.
Astronomical observations
FITS + WCS
Image arrays, observation headers and celestial coordinate solutions for preserving what an astronomy image measures and where it is located on the sky.
Astronomy processing history
IVOA Provenance
A model for connecting entities, activities and agents so calibration, reduction and derived astronomy products retain their lineage.
Packaging & publication
EML + DwC-A
Dataset context, methods, coverage, tables, and metadata packaged for a future Darwin Core Archive export.
Collection descriptions
Latimer Core
A TDWG vocabulary for describing whole collections—natural-history drawers, specimen archives, and microscopy sets.
Optional citation identifiers
DataCite Metadata Schema
The metadata contract for a later, governed DOI registration decision. A complete profile can be DOI-ready without a DOI being requested or minted.
Preservation packages
RO-Crate + BagIt + PREMIS
Complementary structures for contextual packaging, payload manifests/fixity and preservation-event evidence. They support an archive conversation; they do not prove archival acceptance.
People & physical samples
ORCID + IGSN
A contributor may add a checksum-valid ORCID iD as an explicitly asserted profile identifier. OAuth authentication and IGSN minting are separate integrations.
Stewardship
FAIR principles
The cross-cutting direction: data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
Implementation status: Clio asks for fields suited to your observation and intended use. A completed record does not by itself prove full standards conformance or acceptance by another repository.
Quality evidence
Standards give a record a shared vocabulary. Review gives it meaning.
Clio’s three-tier verification model is informed by the citizen-science data-quality literature, including Kosmala et al. (2016) and the GBIF data-quality requirements.
Read the quality review ↗